India erupted in joy early morning on Thursday as women’s freestyle wrestler Sakshi Malik finally ended the long wait for the country’s first medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics when she clinched the bronze in 58kg category.
The 23-year-old showed nerves of steel to come back from 0-5 down and beat Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 8-5 in the medal play-off bout. She thus creates history as India’s first woman wrestler to win a medal at the mega-quadrennial Games.
With this feat, she joins weightlifter Karman Malleswari (Sydney, 2000), shuttler Saina Nehwal and boxer MC Mary Kom (both London, 2012) to become the fourth woman ever to deliver the much-coveted Olympic medal to India.
The girl, hailing from the state of Haryana, displayed exceptional resilience and courage under pressure in the bronze medal match. Her Kyrgyzstani opponent was in command for a better part of the match after surging to a 5-0 lead at the end of the first period. The Indian struggled to find any opening in Tynybekova’s seemingly impenetrable defense as time was running out.
But the young grappler did not give up even when hopes looked bleak. She finally managed to throw down Tynybekova that awarded her two points. With a similar takedown, she earned another double to get within sniffing distance of the Kyrgyzstani at 4-5.
She then once more succeeded in pushing her opponent out of the circle that helped level the scores, 5-5. But with 10 seconds to go, Sakshi produced a stunner that completely turned around the match and with it, India’s fortunes too.
She pinned down her opponent and bagged two crucial points to win the match 7-5. Tynybekova requested a challenge that ultimately turned unsuccessful. Following that, another point went to India’s kitty, making it an 8-5 victory.
Earlier in the pre-quarter-finals, the 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist had edged past Mariana Cherdivara Esanu of Republic of Moldova, 5-5 where she won the match by dint of bigger points gain.
She, however, succumbed to a 2-9 defeat to Russian Valeriia Koblova Zholobova in the last-eight clash.
With Koblova reaching the summit clash, Sakshi was guaranteed to play in the repechage round where she outclassed Mongolia’s Orkhon Purevdorj, 12-3.